The IAEA’s Nuclear Safeguards Culture: ‘Candy Concept’ or Powerful Prism?

On October 1, 2014, MTA/ISP Senior Research Fellow Trevor Findlay presented "The IAEA’s Nuclear Safeguards Culture: ‘Candy Concept’ or Powerful Prism?" as part of the Project on Managing the Atom Seminar Series. The presentation employs organizational culture theory to dissect the nuclear safeguards culture of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The origins and evolution of the culture since the IAEA's founding in 1957 are examined, including the extent to which it reflects the organizational culture of the Agency as a whole and that of the United Nations. Differences between safeguards culture and safety and security cultures will be explored. A key question is the extent to which the Agency's safeguards culture has changed since the strengthening of nuclear safeguards following the discovery of Iraq's illicit nuclear weapons program in the early 1990s. The presentation concludes with findings about the current state of the culture, the discontinuities it faces and what the IAEA might do about it. The research for this project was funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.